desperate hand-to-hand fight with the natives. All was now confusion.
Fresh masses of the enemy poured down with exulting shouts, and in a
confused crowd the brigade retreated. Had not help been at hand they
would probably have met with the same fate that befell Baker's force,
and none would have reached Suakim to tell the news of the massacre. The
sailors, in vain trying to drag off their guns, were almost all killed,
and the guns fell into the hands of the enemy.

But a check was given to the advance of the Arabs by the cavalry, who
had moved forward to the left of the square. The officer in command saw
that were he to charge across the broken ground his little force would
be lost among the throng of Arabs. He therefore dismounted them, and
they poured volley after volley with their carbines into the thick of
the enemy. In the meantime General Buller's square was advancing. It had
been attacked as desperately as had that of General Davis; but it was
well handled, and its formation had not been broken up by any order such
as that which had destroyed the formation of the other brigade. So
steady and terrible a fire was opened upon the advancing enemy that not
one of the assailants reached the face of the square; and having
repulsed the attacks, it advanced rapidly to the relief of the shattered
brigade ahead, pouring incessant volleys into the ranks of the Arabs as
they swept down to its assault.

Thus, as they advanced, the first brigade cleared the right face of the
second from its foes, and as soon as they came up with the retreating
force these halted and reformed their ranks Both brigades were now
formed in line, and advanced steadily towards the ravine. Upon their way
they came upon the abandoned guns, which the enemy had in vain tried to
carry off. Sweeping the Arabs before them, the British force reached the
edge of the ravine. It was filled by the flying Arabs, and into these a
terrible fire was poured by the musketry and guns until the Arabs had
gained the opposite side and were concealed among the bushes. The
fighting was now over, although the enemy still maintained a distant
fire. It was necessary, however, to keep the troops together, for
numbers of the Arabs still lay hidden among the bushes, leaping up and
flinging themselves desperately upon any who approached them.

The scene of the conflict was terrible. A hundred and twenty of the
British lay dead, of whom more than half belonged to the 42d. Three